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Frequently Asked Questions

Your questions answered

Welcome to our most frequently asked questions page. Below we have listed some of our most commonly asked questions along with our answers, and have categorised them into 'General', 'E-Commerce', 'Pricing' and 'SEO'. If you still have a burning question, or just need some advice, we are always at the end of the phone by calling 01656 729727, or you can use our online contact form.

General

Vale Internet Solutions is an established web development company having been in business since it's incorporation in 2004. With over 40 years combined experience in the IT industry in both retail and manufacturing markets, you can be rest assured that Vale Internet Solutions can provide the experience necessary to meet your requirements.

Ideally, we prefer to meet all our clients at our offices in Porthcawl for an informal chat to discuss requirements and expectations. This way we get to know the client face to face, and can easily determine whether we can work successfully together.
We are very flexible, and if necessary can arrange to meet clients during both evenings and weekends.

There are many factors involved when creating a website, and in most cases this is dictated by the client. It also depends upon the type of website, such as whether it is a simple 5-6 page website, or whether it is a fully functional ecommerce site with many features.
Where timescales have been agreed, you can be assured that Vale Internet Solutions will do their utmost too meet these, but it must be understood that it is a two-way process, and clients will also need to provide their input in a timely manner.

Many sites in our portfolio were developed before smartphones and tablets became popular, so even though they all work and appear correctly, they were designed for use with a mouse and keyboard.
However, in the current climate, mobile friendly websites are our priority and any current or future websites can be developed using 'responsive' design, which enables the website to alter it's appearance and usability depending upon the screen size of the device viewing it.

We frequently deal with many businesses who are in this position, having websites that they simply cannot do anything with. Typically we would try and get hold of the original website code if that's available, or in many cases reproduce the site using our frameworks.

Yes, in fact, the majority of websites we develop are hosted on our own suite of dedicated servers, currently provided by UK Fast, one of the UK's leading hosting companies.
We prefer to host our clients websites to ensure ongoing full compatibility with our CMS and Ecommerce frameworks.

We can offer a basic set of POP3 email addresses, but in most cases we would recommend using a service such as Google Apps, Outlook.com, Hotmail or Yahoo which can provide far more powerful features hassle free. Naturally, we can assist in setting these up for you.

Ecommerce

Ecommerce websites are our speciality. We have had many years of experience creating online shops with full content management and payment gateway integration. With a portfolio including men's clothing. tattoo products, acupuncture needles, marine tools, insurance policies, and even wellington boots - our ability to cater for diverse markets is plain to see!

Through our experience, we can offer plenty of advice, but ultimately, the client is responsible for ensuring they are trading legally and meet all the regulations regarding distance selling and data protection.
For more information visit the GOV.UK website for more information about online and distance selling.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. For more information visit the official PCI Security Standards Website for more details.
All our ecommerce websites are regularly tested for PCI compliance to ensure they meet the current requirements outlined by the banks.

Pricing

Unfortunately, pricing a website can be compared to 'how long is a piece of string?'. There are many factors which can affect the price of the website, for example 'do you require content management?', 'will you be selling and accepting payments online?', 'is there need for an extensive database behind the scenes?'....and so on.
However, to give you an idea, simple websites which consist of around 5-6 pages with a contact form and basic content management will cost from around £500 to develop.
More detailed and complex websites, such as online shops, directories, social networks and database sites can cost anything from £1000 to £10000+.

For each website we charge a combined annual hosting and support fee. For basic websites, this starts at £200 per year, but on the more complex websites the annual fee is negotiated on a per site basis.

Prices for websites will vary considerably amongst different companies and web developers. We price as competitively as possible, ensuring the client receives a personal, reliable and efficient service, with first class support available 7 days a week.

Search Engine Optimisation

All our websites are created with search engines in mind and the website design is compliant with search engine guidelines. It is a good idea for your website to be re-evaluated in time as over a period of time the search engines do alter their rules and algorithms and you will want to be certain that your website is kept up to date and complies with new rules etc.

All websites we develop are optimised and submitted to Google, and have a comprehensive set of SEO functionality built in. However, marketing the website must be considered as a separate project to the development of the site, and we would recommend dealing with a specialist SEO company to achieve high rankings.